It is a common practice to load a quantity of individual packages of consumer products into corrugated paperboard shipping trays or containers for bulk shipment of the packages to another location and have the packages or product items then re-packed into a display tray or container for sale in retail or club stores. This results in both a significant expenditure of time on the part of the retailer in transferring the goods from the shipping containers to the display trays, as well as added expense in the form of shelving or display trays for such product items.
Although removal of individual product items from the shipping container and placing them individually on store shelving is suitable in some cases, the practice of displaying goods in shipping containers has become more popular with the advent of large warehouse style stores and supermarkets where the containers are stacked on top of one another on the retail floor.
In attempting to adapt a conventional shipping container for display of the product items held therein, a retailer might use a cutting implement to cut away a section of the shipping container to form an opening for display of and access to the product items. However, the use of cutting implements to open cases can damage the products and can weaken the container to the point that it cannot be safely stacked with other containers.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a shipping and display container that uses only a single piece of corrugated material in its construction, that can be easily produced on standard box plant converting equipment, that retains its integrity during shipping and handling, that does not require the use of a knife or other tool to convert it from a shipping to a display configuration, that leaves a clean smooth edge when opened.